Abstract
Extracting as much information as possible about an object when probing with a limited number of photons is an important goal with applications from biology and security to metrology. Imaging with a few photons is a challenging task as the detector noise and stray light are then predominant, which precludes the use of conventional imaging methods. Quantum correlations between photon pairs has been exploited in a so called ‘heralded imaging scheme’ to eliminate this problem. However these implementations have so-far been limited to intensity imaging and the crucial phase information is lost in these methods. In this work, we propose a novel quantum-correlation enabled Fourier Ptychography technique, to capture high-resolution amplitude and phase images with a few photons. This is enabled by the heralding of single photons combined with Fourier ptychographic reconstruction. We provide experimental validation and discuss the advantages of our technique that include the possibility of reaching a higher signal to noise ratio and non-scanning Fourier Ptychographic acquisition.
Highlights
We have demonstrated the possibility of harnessing EPR-type quantum correlations to produce Fourier ptychographic (FP) images
We use Fourier ptychography (FP) combined with a heralded single-photon imaging scheme to allow the acquisition of images at extremely low light level and with a good signal to noise ratio
This is made possible by the implementation of a ‘heralded imaging scheme’ through the use of time-gated ICCD camera that temporally selects the heralded photons thereby removing parasitic contributions, e.g. dark noise, that would otherwise lead to a degradation of the image quality
Summary
We demonstrate that quantitative phase-amplitude imaging with a small number of photons is possible by using a Fourier ptychographic acquisition technique enabled by quantum correlations through a heralded imaging scheme. Fourier ptychography (FP) is a synthetic aperture technique which uses low-resolution objectives and tilt-shift illumination[7] to synthesize high-resolution, amplitude and phase images[8] It replaces the traditional interferometric methods[9] with a computational iterative algorithm[8]. Post-selecting images on different momentum measurement outcome for the twin photon allows the acquisition of images virtually illuminated from many distinct directions These images are combined together using an iterative FP algorithm to synthesise a wide-field of view, high-resolution amplitude and phase image. EPR states have been used to perform quantum imaging with undetected photons[27] and importantly for the presently reported realisation to implement heralded imaging[4]
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